Boxers & Saints - Indie Review

The major comic companies get enough reviews and press, it’s time for the creator-owned and indie series to get some love and judgment. Indie review takes up-and-coming indie and creator-owned series and puts them through the review process so you can confidently support the best of the small press and passion driven projects in the comic industry.

The Info Bit

Title 1: Boxers

Title 2: Saints

Genre/s: Historical/Drama

Writer: Gene Luen Yang (American Born Chinese, Avatar: The Last Airbender)

Penciler: Gene Luen Yang

Colorist: Lark Pien (Stories from the Ward, Long Tail Kitty)

Publisher: First Second

Number of Issues: 2 volume Original Graphic Novel

Page Count (Boxers): 328

Page Count (Saints): 170

Price (Boxers): $18.99

Price (Saints): $15.99

The Review Bit

Comic creator Gene Luen Yang has recently produced a rather incredible pair of new graphic novels that tell of China’s Boxer Rebellion. While normally our reviews focus on one comic at a time, these two titles are inseparable and therefore we are going to review both books in one review. Why are they inseparable? Because both Boxers and Saints share the same setting and story, told through the interweaving tales of two very different characters. It is a somewhat unique form of story telling, masterfully handled by Yang and well worth reading.

Well both books start at roughly the same period of time, and arguably could be read in any order, Boxers should be considered the first volume of this story, with Saints somewhat neatly wrapping things up slightly after where the story in Boxers ends. So for that reason, and the reason that the interconnecting spines of each book go first Boxers and then Saints, we’re going to talk of Boxers first.

Boxers follows the Boxer’s side of China’s Boxer Rebellion and its lead up in the late 19^th century. It specifically tells the tale of Little Bao, a young Chinese boy from Northern Shan Tung Province, who would one day become the first member of the Society of the Righteous and Harmonious Fist, a group Westerners would generally know as The Boxers. Bao is the youngest of three sons, a lad who is kind hearted, respectful to his family, and loves opera. Every year Little Bao would attend his village’s spring festivals, pay homage to the local god, Tu Di Gong, and enjoy the colorful Chinese operas. Bao would go through his youthful and innocent life imagining himself a part of these operas, interacting with the various deities, warriors, and heroes from their tales. One day, he even sees a beautiful young girl with a face like an opera mask and falls in love. But things don’t stay too simple in Bao’s life for long. At one of the festivals a traveling thug attempts to take advantage of another of the villagers. Bao’s father steps in and brings justice with his fists, replacing Bao’s opera idols as his new hero. But when the thug returns with more men and a European priest (the first foreign devil Bao has ever seen), Bao’s father does not fight, fearing Western retribution. The priest allows the thug to take retribution for the “wrong doing” done to him, and even destroys the sacred representation of Tu Di Gong, claiming no false idols should be worshipped. Bao finds himself very upset until he discovers his father and another villager plan to go see the magistrate about this Western intervention. Sadly, along the way, Bao’s father is heavily beat by Western soldiers. Bao’s depression thickens until a traveling kung fu healer, known as Red Lantern, comes to town and begins training the villagers in martial arts. He is part of the Big Sword Society, and secretly starts training Bao too. While Bao is quite talented, when Red Lantern requires a group of men to fight off some foreign devils in another town he does not choose Bao. But Red Lantern does leave Bao with information leading him to a new teacher that will eventually enlighten Bao in a very special form of Kung Fu.

From the new teacher, Bao learns a ritual which allows him to channel the power of Chinese gods and spirits. Bao uses this ritual to fight off a group of Western supporting Imperial Troops that have killed his friend, Red Lantern, and captured Bao’s brothers (who trained and fought under Red Lantern). Bao then teaches the rituals to his brothers and friends so they might now join the Big Sword Society and fight other Westerners who’re corrupting and oppressing China.

It is during these adventures Bao has fighting foreign devils that he meets Mei Wen, a young woman who is being harassed by the Chinese Christians converted by the foreign devils. Bao and his friends defeat the oppressive traitors and train the men of Mei Wen’s village, and Mei Wen herself, in martial arts and the ritual that empowers them. Just as with Bao, the ritual allows each man to become possessed by powerful Chinese spirits and gods, many of which Bao recognizes from his operas and the history of China. Yet Bao is possessed by an unknown figure, one Mei Wen first recognizes as being one of the most important historical figures in China. Once Bao realizes who is possessing him during these fights, he begins to talk to the spirit and determine he must unify China and defeat all foreign devils and religious Chinese traitors who have converted to Western ways. Bao’s forces grow as he trains more loyal Chinese men in the ritual and fights off imperial and Western forces. They eventually name their quickly growing organization of spiritually guided warriors the Society of the Righteous and Harmonious Fist, as students of his venture off to train more men throughout China. Historically, Westerners referred to this group as Boxers for their martial arts training, which was perceived as boxing style fighting.

In the spring of 1900, the turn of the century, Bao’s forces come across their first real moral dilemma. While up until this point they have fought soldiers and thugs who oppress the people of China, now they’ve come across a train of both Western soldiers and civilians, amongst a few Chinese Christians (which Bao refers to as ‘secondary devils’). When Bao attempts to free these men and women from the soldiers, only to find they are devote in their Christian beliefs and fear the Society, he has all the men slaughtered. The innocent Bao now begins to question whether what he is doing is right, but in his dreams the mysterious Chinese historical spirit tells him he is doing what he must for China. He is further reassured when the Chinese general, Tung, and his Chinese Muslim soldiers express their and the Empress’ respect for what the Society is doing, hoping the Society also holds a mutual respect for the Chinese Empress. Bao returns this respect and makes new banners for the Society, expressing their support of the Ch’ing Dynasty and hatred for the foreign devils. The society eventually marches on a walled city, filled with Western military, foreign devils, and Chinese Christians. Bao decides to destroy everyone inside, but faces many intense moral dilemmas upon entering, while also losing the life of friends, family, and even almost losing his own. Yet after the battle, Bao’s Society has grown stronger and in number, even if his resolve now wavers from attempting to live by such black and white views. Never-the-less, Bao’s forces march on to the capital city of Peking, to oust all foreigners from China.

In Peking, during the summer of 1900, Bao’s Society arrives to find many other sects of the Society he helped form already in the city and making their presence known. Bao learns he has a large amount of Chinese support, including General Tung’s army, but when tragedy finally unfolds in the heavily mixed city of foreigners and Chinese nationalists, the Boxer Rebellion truly begins. For those familiar with Chinese history, you likely know how this story ends, in dark tragedy. But it is the journey getting to this point and the fate of Bao and those he is close to that makes Boxers such a great tale.

In Saints the story starts at roughly the same point that Boxers did, years before the Boxer Rebellion, in the late 19^th century. But this story stars a young girl, born into a family that does not truly appreciate her, known only as Four-Girl. She is called this because she is the fourth daughter (born on the fourth day of the fourth month) to be born from a couple whose previous children had all died in their first year. Her father had passed before her birth, and her grandfather believed her cursed because of it. Eventually, this view of her grandfathers leads her to truly believe she is some cursed devil, causing her to begin acting like one. Four-girl begins this by constantly making a devilish face, much like an opera mask. When this starts causing trouble for her family, Four-Girl’s mother takes her to a local acupuncturist, who happens to be a Chinese Christian. The acupuncturist, Dr. Won, quickly sees through this act and convinces the young girl to no longer make this face. Yet Four-Girl is still determined to be a devil. One day, during one of the nearby village’s spring festivals, Four-Girl witnesses a Christian priest destroy a statue of the god Tu Di Gong. She overhears the Chinese men of the village call the priest a devil, and she realizes what she now must do to be a true devil herself: become a Christian. Four-Girl returns to Dr. Won over the next few weeks, learning of Christianity from him and falling asleep each day with little true interest in the biblical stories he enthusiastically shares. However, in taking these lessons, Four-Girl is neglecting her house hold chores, which upsets her family and angers her grandfather. He slaps the young girl as he verbally berates her, angering her to the point that she puts a hex on him. Soon, her grandfather dies and Four-Girl blames herself for this. She does, however, vaguely remember hearing the story of Jesus Christ’s rebirth and hopes that she might resurrect her grandfather like Jesus, by undoing the hex. It is in her search to undo this that she meets a spirit…the spirit of The Maid of Orleans, who some might know as Joan of Arc. Four-Girl returns to Dr. Won to learn more of this spirit, who takes the girl to a local priest, Father Bey. Father Bey is the same man who destroyed the statue of Tu Di Gong, but is a well versed Christian that instantly recognizes the spirit as Joan d’Arc. Bey believes this ‘vision’ of the spirit of Joan means Four-Girl is being welcomed into the church, leading to the girl officially taking classes at the church. Over the weeks, home life for Four-Girl becomes worse as she attends classes at church with the same low level of enthusiasm as before. However, when Four-Girl discovers that she can be baptized and take on a new Christian name—a real name of her own, she discovers a sudden enthusiasm for truly becoming Christian. Four-Girl is then baptized into Christianity and takes on the name Vibiana. But while Dr. Won and the other Chinese Christians are proud of her, when her family discovers they force her cousin, Chung, to beat her. This causes Vibiana to run away from her home. As she is doing so, she bumps into Father Bey, who is also leaving the village to take refuge at another Christian community, in another Chinese village not far away. Vibiana follows him and ends up living in a walled city filled with Westerners and Chinese Christians. There, she begins work at an orphanage, continues to have visions of Joan, and even falls in love with a boy. It is during this time she discovers her true calling, though. She is not to be a devil or fall in love, but to be a maiden warrior like Joan! Through some forceful negotiating, she convinces the boy she fell for to begin training her in the art of the sword. All seems well, as perhaps Vibiana has found her place in life, until the Society of the Righteous and Harmonious Fist arrive at the walls of the city.

Here you can likely imagine where the books have intersected, though in reading them you will undoubtedly find many other points. Saints does continue on after the Boxer Rebellion, but to explain how would ruin the wonderful finale Yang has crafted.

I highly admire Yang’s ability to write in this unique style of telling a story from multiple perspectives across multiple books. He is hardly the only person to do this, but he is one of the few who has pulled it off well. On top of that, he is restricted by holding true to the tragic historical events of the Boxer Rebellion. The Boxer Rebellion was part of what many Chinese and Chinese historians refer to as China’s Century of Humiliation, a period where things in no way seemed to work out for China during its dark foreign oppression. Yang has managed to show all sides rather reasonably in this tragedy, from the Boxers who stood up against the foreigners, to the Western forces who were oppressing and taking advantage of the Chinese and their resources, and even the Chinese Christians caught inbetween. Yang shows no side as being innocent or purely evil, despite having characters whose views are very black and white. It allows us, the readers, to see where mistakes were likely made and says something truly human about the decisions and perceptions we all make.

Both stories open rather innocently, as we get to know the book’s protagonist. Admittedly, Saints starts out with a slightly darker tone, considering Four-Girl’s home life and situation, but there is still a fair amount of childish innocence in the character. As both stories progress we see the characters go down separate routes, learning more about the history of their people and the world around them, seeing how this affects and changes them into the people they will become. Sadly, these external influences don’t necessarily turn them into the people they once wanted to be. In this respect, I feel the books are both very powerful for what they say about us as humans and what life truly, and sadly, is. But on the other end there is a lot to be learned about Chinese history and culture in these books. As someone familiar with both, I found these books rather entertaining interpretations of this specific era and the culture backing it. If you’re in no way familiar with either Chinese culture or history, these books gives you a very interesting look at both without overwhelming you with information.

Obviously following historical events, the history of this era is prevalent, albeit somewhat biased and interpretive, like you will find in most cases of good historical fiction. The nice thing is that Yang provides a list of further reading in the back of each book for anyone looking to learn more about the story’s historical and culture influences. The surprise for me was truly how much Chinese culture is subtly thrown in the story. Opera is huge part of the comic, with all of the gods and spirits’ designs being influenced by it. Furthermore, the various gods and spirits are from China’s vast culture and history, with characters like Journey to the West’s Sun Wukong (The Monkey King), history’s Guan Yu, and mythology’s Chang’e. There are even more subtle Chinese cultural references, like the dark and unlucky meaning of the number 4, which is homophonous with the word death in both Chinese and Japanese, adding to Four-Girl’s cursed and devil like perception from her grandfather. It isn’t just Chinese cultural references though, as in Saints we are educated more on Christianity and even the story of Joan d’Arc. These books, in truth, provide a lot of educational moments hidden throughout the story and told in ways that are easily grasped. It actually makes me believe both books would be great learning tools for ages 10+.

Now before I go on to talk of the art in the books, I want to note on the lettering and literal writing inside Boxers and Saints. The word bubble lettering is for the most part average in what you’d expect from a well put together graphic novel. The sound effects are present and on panel, but nothing really of note beyond helping convey certain specific noises in the tale. What I want to talk about are three things. First is the incorporation of Chinese writing characters (known as Hanzi) in the chapter headings and throughout the book. It is a nice touch to constantly remind us this tale is Chinese, but in no way exhaust readers unfamiliar with the language. It is there just enough to be noticed by the Western target audience. But as we are reading in English, from the Chinese perspective, something had to be done to denote the Chinese did not understand what the Westerners were saying, despite it literally being in English most often. Yang uses a brilliant font of scribbles (that does actually convert over and still translate into English) for Western languages, captioning translations below the word bubbles. It is a great way of reminding us that most of the characters won’t understand what is being said by the Westerners they interact with. But the part that interested me most, and likely won’t matter to many unfamiliar with Chinese language, is Yang’s usage of Wade-Giles romanization of the Chinese language, rather than the more common modern usage of pinyin. While this won’t even be noticeable to most readers, it is a little different for people familiar with both languages who have learned the romanizing conversion in the past 30 or so years.

The art for Boxers and Saints is done by Gene Luen Yang himself, while coloring is handled by Lark Pien. Yang’s art is definitely a simpler, stylized approach that is nearly minimalist. While the characters are simple in design, and relatively cartoonish in appearance, they still hold a lot of emotion, which Yang wonderfully draws on every face. In truth, this gives the book a much more powerful feeling, as we start out with such innocent characters and focus more on what is said and expressed in their faces than the backgrounds or violence. This style also heavily compliments the use of Chinese Opera design for the various gods and spirits, which are quite lavish and colorful. Speaking of color, Pien puts together a high number of colors to fit the Chinese operatic look of the many gods and spirits’ outfits. While most of her coloring in this book lacks gradience, generally preferring flats that compliment Yang’s art, when it is used in scenes, like those involving Joan d’Arc, it is quite good. On a book like this it is easy to overlook the colors done, but they truly do make the book pop and add to the atmosphere Yang creates.

Finally, I have to talk about the production of the actual books First Second put together. These things look beautiful side by side or on a bookshelf, with interconnecting covers and spines by Yang. The symmetry in this design is stunning, really making the covers stand out when together. But when you consider the low cost for each rather thick graphic novel, the quality of the paper and cover binding is also rather remarkable. Not only do these books have a great look, but they have a great feel and affordability for what you’re getting.

The Rating Bit

Boxers and Saints are both incredible books that tell a very strong and emotional tale set in a tragic moment in Chinese history. The humanity shown in both protagonists is so tangible and relatable that you can truly get lost in their stories. Accompanied by wonderful art and a high quality of production, I have no problem giving both Boxers and Saints a 9 out of 10, hoping you all take the time to pick up and read a copy of both when they hit stores later this week, on September 10th.